A Change of Scenery
by grenouillenue
Summary: Post Chosen the gang and potentials move on, Xander and Dawn decided to stay in LA. Not a Dawn/Xander romance - SLASH
1. Chapter 1

**Rating:**PG, later on it may become NC-17 but not yet.

**Summary:**Post Chosen the characters split themselves between the other Hellmouth and LA. In this chapter the interpretation of the events in Chosen is explained.

**Disclaimer:**This is in no way mine. Are Spike and Xander under my bed? No well I guess that means that Joss still has them and they belong to him. Most of the lines are directly from Chosen.

**Paring:**None in this chapter, various later on including, S/X, B/OC, F/We and others

**Warnings:**Slash, large age differences, possibility of smut, possibility of relationships involving people under the age of 18. I like Buffy but she might be bashed a little at the beginning but she will hopefully get a happy ending.

**AN**: This chapter is my take on Chosen, there is not a lot of original dialogue now, but there is more

I have 7 chapters completed and will post the second one tomorrow and the following 5 depending on reactions.

All he could feel was the fire, burning him from the inside out. It wasn't painful, but he knew that the flames were climbing up his body. That was the last moment of clarity before the Hellmouth started to cave in around him.

"I love you," was the last thing he thought he would ever hear from another living being. He didn't believe her; everything that had happened through the last few weeks,the last minute confession seemed false. It would've been more sincere in that old house. He didn't believe her, but it still felt good to hear. At that point the flames intensified and the world went white.

When the town started to cave in on the Hellmouth they were still racing towards the edge of town. They barely made it on the bus in time and Buffy was still sprinting behind them.

When they finally cleared the hole that used to be home Giles asked, "What did this?"

"Spike," Buffy answered.

"So did you see?" Xander asked Andrew with tears in his eyes.

"I... I was scared. I'm sorry," Andrew answered.

"Did you see what happened?"

"She was incredible. She died saving my life."

"That's my girl...always doing the stupid thing," Xan replied allowing a few of the tears to fall. "We saved the world."

"We changed the world. I can feel them, Buffy. All over slayers are awakening everywhere," Willow said with awe in her voice.

"We'll have to find them." Dawn replied

"We will," the witch said

"Yes, because the mall was actually in Sunnydale so there's no hope of going there tomorrow," Giles muttered.

"We destroyed the mall? I fought on the wrong side," Dawn replied in typical teenager fashion.

"All those shops, gone. The Gap, Starbucks, Toys R Us... who will remember all those landmarks unless we tell the world of them?" Xander replied sarcastically.

"We have a lot of work ahead of us," Giles said.

"Can I push him in?" Faith asked.

"You've got my vote," Willow joked.

"I want to sleep, yo. For like a week!" Faith yelled.

"I guess we could, if we wanted to," Dawn yawned.

"Yeah, The First is scrunched so... what do you think we should do Buffy?"

"Yeah, you're not the one and only Chosen anymore. Just gotta live like a person. How's that feel?"

"Yeah, Buffy what are we going to do now?" Dawn asked.

On the bus on the way away from the crater that used to be Sunnydale, Dawn and Xander sat in the back of the bus talking about what they wanted to do. They were the 'normal' people amongst the group. They had no magic, no powers, and no special abilities. After the fight with Glory, nothing came of Dawn being the key; there were no side effects, no special abilities that had popped up. It seemed to them like they got the short end of the stick. They hung out with Slayers, witches, a vampire,and a small army of girls with the training to take out an army of Ubervamps and there they were a one eyed carpenter and a teenage girl who once had the power to tear down the walls between realities, but now didn't seem to have anything. They decided that they were going to get away from the group. Not their friends but the group as a whole. Dawn was 18 years old and Xander was 23, and they decided that they would stick close together. Neither of them had a whole lot of money saved up so they needed to depend on each other. They were the two that were urged to leave the fight before the end. They no longer wanted to be considered weak so they were going to be strong and forge their own paths.

About an hour out of Sunnydale they stopped at a diner. Willow and Kennedy decided to stay in the bus and eat – that the hungry and horny thing that Faith always talked about was true for Kennedy as well. While all the rest of the slayers were taking care of the hunger effects of the battle, Willow and Kennedy spent that time in their seat on the bus.

"Wow," said Willow, pulling her shirt down and her straps back up.

"I know," Kennedy replied breathlessly, lunging towards the remainder of the massive order of food that was sitting on the seat across the aisle.

The heat from the fire intensified until there was nothing but the colourless flare of pure heat, this nothing went on forever until it just stopped the nothing that existed around him turned into the close up view of a plush carpet. He lifted his eyes towards the other figure in the room. "Bloody Hell" he thought to himself.

Read and respond please


	2. Chapter 2

Rating:PG, later on it may become NC-17 but not yet.

Summary:Post Chosen the characters split themselves between the other Hellmouth and LA. In this chapter the interpretation of the events in Chosen is explained.

Paring:None in this chapter, various later on including, S/X, B/OC and others

The only thing Xander remembered from the end of the ride to LA was the rusting metal of the bus. The only things that were left in Sunnydale after the grand exodus were trashy, rusting, destroyed pieces of crap. They arrived in LA in the dusky evening hours. There was a heated argument about where to go when they got into the city. Buffy wanted to go to this little office on one side of town and Willow determinedly stated that Angel was no longer working out of that office – he had moved to a large hotel over two years before. Buffy was hurt by that, she'd met with Angel after she came back from heaven and he never mentioned anything to her. Xander felt like that bus, like he was worn out from use and abuse, rust crusting over hiding all that was shiny and true.

They finally got to Angel's hotel after going to the offices that Buffy remembered and finding a dentist's office with mild fire damage, forcing her to admit that maybe Angel didn't tell her everything anymore. Xander couldn't keep himself from pointing out to Dawn that Angel had never really told her everything at any point in their relationship. When they got there they found the place dark and there was a sign posted on the front door that said "Angel Investigations are no longer in operational at this location." Below the sign there was a downtown address. They all grudgingly climbed back onto the bus and headed towards the new location. By this point Buffy was starting to steam. Not only had Angel not told her that he had moved over two years ago, he also decided to move again while she was in the midst of an apocalypse.

"Looks like she finally realized that he spent the last 4 years moving on with his life, which shocks me because he always seemed like he was the big broody sit in the dark and mope about her type of guy," Xander whispered to Dawn.

"Looks like she thought that too," Dawn whispered back, looking at her sister who was near tears staring off into the night. It must've been a shock to her that the two men who told her they'd never leave her both did just that. The only difference was that Angel did it by choice and she had chosen not to see it until it was shoved in her face the same night that she saw Spike die.

They finally arrived at the downtown address. When they descended from the bus they looked up at the giant building and couldn't imagine what Angel was doing at a law firm. They were cautious about entering; none of them could really say why but no one wanted to go in. It was discussed and they decided to send Dawn and Xander in because they were the least threatening of the bunch and they knew how to keep their wits about them in a crisis. After each of them was armed with a cell phone and a stake they made their way into the building. It seemed normal enough – it looked like a normal law office. They climbed into the elevator, pressed the button for the top floor, and waited impatiently for it to climb to the top. When the doors opened they found themselves facing the wrong way. Dawn reacted first turning to face the room. What she saw when her eyes focused was something she had thought she would never see again in her life. She took off at a run around a corner leaving Xander with his one good eye to trail behind her.

"Spike!" she yelled throwing herself at him and expecting to be caught. It was a shock to her when she landed on the floor behind Spike instead of in his arms.

He turned and looked down at her. "Nibblet?" he whispered as Xander rounded the corner and realized who he was looking at.

AN:So what do you think? Should I post the next 5 chapters?


	3. Chapter 3

**Rating: **K+ for now

**Summary:** The Scoobies are in LA, in the last chapter Dawn and Xander discovered Spike haunting the W&H lobby

He's the center of attention, for once in his life he's the center of everything in the room and he hates it. To think that the one thing he's really worked for his entire life/unlife is something he hates. It was never about impressing his sire, it was always about wanting to be the one she focused on – not her "Daddy." All the eyes fixed on him are making him uncomfortable. Everyone is in awe of him and they seem to think that he's this big hero who could do no wrong. They can't even look at him the same way they did before, all the eyes on him are worshiping; well, all the eyes except three. Dawn can't even look at him without crying, she sees her hero but she also sees him. She's the only one who ever did and nothing in her eyes has changed. But the eye that surprises him the most is Xander's, that lonely eye is fixed on him showing nothing but understanding. There is no worship and Spike feels that if he were to walk over to Harris and call him "whelp" the boy would insult him back.

It was a nice thing to think that someone else understood what he was feeling, someone knew that just because he did something good all the evil he had done still existed and he still was the same person he had been. You would think that Willow would be the one to understand what he was feeling, seeing as she had seen the evil side of life, but no there was no answering understanding in her eyes. The only person who showed any sign of understanding other than Xander was Faith. The one girl that they had all written off as evil was the only one who understood working for forgiveness.

He can't believe that Spike's alive. He spent so much energy hating him and there he is like a mythical Chimera, something that you don't think is real, that you don't think could exist that you see when you turn the corner. Apparently the vampires in the Masters line have a penchant for coming back to life – they just didn't seem to want to die and stay dead. Xander wondered what he was going to do now that he's back – well, not completely dead. They had decided that he and Dawn were still going to stay here in LA even though Angel was in charge of evil central.

Wesley seemed to have grown up in the last four years he was no longer the geeky child he was when he lived in Sunny D. But when Xander made his comment under his breath about Chimeras, not believing they existed and the Aurelian's penchant for surviving everything, he tried to pipe up and comment on the actual existence ofChimeras. But when Giles interrupted him, both Xander and Wesley flashed back to the library of Sunnydale high. The shame and the feeling of the punished child hidden under the stairs penetrating their conscious mind. That never really happened to Xander like it had to Wesley, but the shame of unknown pain and the sorrow of youth felt like a universal pain that everyone felt to varying degrees.

Xander got up from his seat and went to stand beside Spike who was sitting in a chair in the middle of a circle. He placed his hand on the back of Spike's chair.

"Welcome back Spike," he said with a grin on his face.


	4. Chapter 4

Not mine the pretty boys belong to Joss, wish he'd let me play with them.  
Building towards something, not sure what yet.

Spike wasn't the only one who was shocked by Xander's admission; it had been a week since Xander had shocked everyone. That initial shock had been followed by a few lesser shocks. Xander was staying in LA without the rest of the Scoobies. The rest of the Scoobies – version 7.0 – were going to the Cleveland Hellmouth; all of them except for Dawn, who was staying behind in LA with Xander, the two "normal" people of the group. After this news was broken the rest of the Scoobies headed out. There were tearful goodbyes and after Willow said her farewells, the last of the group left the office building. Dawn and Xander turned to each other and let out a sigh. Willow walked on to the bus in tears and sat down beside Kennedy who was curled up towards the window already asleep, being one of the first people to board the bus. Willow leaned over to her for comfort, but she just snoozed on oblivious to the pain in her girlfriend`s eyes.

Xander hadn't seen Spike since then and that had nothing to do with the fact that every time Xander caught a glimpse of the duster sweeping around a corner he ducked into the nearest open room. He'd had a few interesting conversations with Wesley, most of which started with Wesley nearly spilling his tea over various irreplaceable artifacts as Xander burst into his office. He'd even begun to confide in Wesley about his demon magnet-y qualities; Wesley simply hummed and hawed until the Friday when Xander once more unceremoniously burst in on him when he was studying the original Shanshu text.

"Xander, must you burst in here so loudly. I'm certain with all the racket you're making, Spike knows full well where you are. "

"What? I thought I was being sneaky."

"If that's how you do sneaky it's a wonder you survived a night with Buffy." Realising he had hit a sore spot, Wesley decided it was time to change the subject. "I've been thinking, maybe all the demon magnet-ness and your survival even with your lack of sneakiness might be attributed to something else. You said something about being called 'the one who sees.' I seem to have come across a passage in this text that references the vampire reaching out through, ummm I'm not sure of this word but it seems he reaches for he whose eyes have been opened through loss. It goes on to talk about this helper and his special abilities with the supernatural, things that hide under his awareness. It says 'and the demons will know him yet they will not have him, he shall be both protected and protector.'"

"Yea well that's got to be talking about someone else. I'm no one's protector."

"Well it might not mean you, but it seems suspicious to me."

"So you really think Spike knows that I've been avoiding him?"

"Absolutely, even I can hear you lumbering down the hall."

Xander thought about that and decided that the next time that he saw Spike he wouldn't hide in the nearest office. After all, all that he did was say something nice to Spike, it wasn't like no one had ever done that before. Spike hadn't always been an outsider; he really helped that summer when Buffy was 'gone.' It turned out that his opportunity was coming quicker than he thought. Xander stepped into the hallway and practically ran into Spike. He knew what he'd promised himself a few moments before but that didn't mean that the door to his left wasn't enticing.

"Ummm, hey..." was all he was able to say before he found himself alone in the hallway. "Spike?"


	5. Chapter 5

Well, that went well. Xander was going to talk to Spike, but the second that he saw him he disappeared into thin air. It seemed to him that Spike had been doing that a lot lately. Xander simply shook his head and sighed.

When Xander got back to the apartment that he shared with Dawn he reached up to remove his eye patch, preferring the feeling of nothing that penetrated the wound to the false covering that made everyone else more comfortable, but only served to make him more conscious of his injury; he was constantly readjusting the straps over his head. The phone began to ring before he'd gotten three feet into the entryway. He jogged the rest of the way across the apartment, which was similar to the apartment he shared with Anya in Sunnydale, but slightly larger and homier with the added touches that Dawn seemed to need after seeing her home sucked into the ground.

"Hello."

"Hey, Xander."

"Willow. Where are you guys?"

"Well right now we're outside of Cleveland heading towards the other Hellmouth."

"Back to a Hellmouth, don't you think that you've spent enough time on one to last a lifetime?"

"I know, but Kennedy is all slay girl now."

"I get it."

"How are things at Evil Inc.?"

"Fine." Xander went on to tell Willow about Wes's idea that he had a part to play in this big apocalyptic prophesy. The conversation didn't last long after that, each of them exhausted.

Xander hung up the phone and walked into the bathroom; he turned on the shower and looked at himself in the mirror. He could still see the line in his hair where the strap from his patch had sat all day long. "That's enough of that." He said to no one but himself, grabbing his razor and stepping into the shower.

Xander stepped out of the shower and heard Dawn walk into the apartment. "Honey, I'm home!" She called out. Xander could practically hear the smirk in her voice.

"That girl has really been spending too much time with Spike lately," he muttered to himself. Since they'd gotten to LA, Spike and Dawn had reached an easy truce. There had been a few days when their voices could be heard reverberating through the halls of Wolfram and Hart, but overall everything had been worked out.

Xander walked out into the entrance once his pyjama pants were firmly in place. He was still used to the idea that he was going to be walking out among impressionable girls, and he'd learned that a towel was not sufficient coverage when you had slayer speed to contend with or simply Dawn's mischievousness. He was drying off his face when he stepped into the living area. When he lowered the towel Dawn's breath was audible

"Say nothing."

"But..."

"Nothing. Bedtime. Thus spoke Zarathustra, now go to bed."

The next morning when he walked into W&H everyone was staring at him. It was nothing; he'd simply decided that it was too much of a hassle to worry about how his hair fell over the patch so he'd shaved his head in the shower last night. He planned on asking Gunn to touch it up for him when he saw him seeing as he was the only one who would have any experience with the sensation of having no hair. Xander couldn't imagine Angel bald; what would he do for the two hours every morning he spent in from of the mirror not seeing himself?

* * *

Rereading this, I made myself laugh out loud with the last line. Hope you enjoy

**AN:** I would like to take a minute for some shameless self promotion, pls check out my story Keys of Knowledge, also it will probably be updated more often than this story, I have 2 more chapters of this written but after that I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this story, but reviews inspire me.


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